Press Releases

MMoCA Announces Dynamic Lineup of Events Winter to Spring 2017

MMoCA Announces Dynamic Lineup of Events

Winter to Spring 2017

MADISON, WI—The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA) reveals details of a dynamic and diverse slate of programing and events for the early months of 2017. By offering lively, engaging, and meaningful exhibitions and events, often free-of-charge, MMoCA connects people with visual art and supports a dynamic arts culture in Madison.

MMoCA invites the public to explore contemporary art through family programs, art talks, and hands-on art experiences. The museum offers a wide range of activities to engage audiences of all types in modern and contemporary art. Activities complement the current MMoCA exhibitions, Reconfigured Reality: Contemporary Photography from the Permanent Collection, Do Ho Suh, and Young at Art.

MMoCA is excited to announce a dynamic schedule of talks, events, films, workshops, and kids’ programming for the Winter and Spring of 2017. Events are free except where noted. All take place at the museum unless otherwise listed. Additional information may be found at mmoca.org.

Art Velo Thursday, February 2 • 5–8 pm EVENT

On the evening of Thursday, February 2, MMoCA will present the third annual Art Velo event, a unique museum fundraiser. Developed in partnership with Cyc Fitness spinning studio, Art Velo brings together individuals and teams of riders for a one-of-a-kind cycling experience in the MMoCA lobby. The event is open to anyone interested in sponsoring a bike in support of the museum. This year, bike sponsors will have the opportunity to network, get creative, and enjoy drinks and fare between two high-energy, 70s and 80s music-infused riding sessions.

For more information about participating as a bike sponsor please visit mmoca.org/artvelo or contact Annik Dupaty at annik@mmoca.org or 608.257.0158 x229.

MMoCA Nights: Do Ho Suh Friday, February 10 • 6–9 pm EVENT

The works of artist Do Ho Suh have been described as ethereal, immersive, wonderful, and architectural. At this MMoCA Nights celebration, guests will be the first to view the artist’s stunning structures, drawings and related models in the museum’s main galleries. In a talk starting at 6:30 pm, the artist himself discusses his influences and artistic vision. Guests will also enjoy live jazz from the Nick Moran Trio and passed hors d’oeuvres in the lobby.

Free for MMoCA members / $10 for non-members.

Artist Talk: Do Ho Suh Friday, February 10 • 6:30 pm TALK

Do Ho Suh is considered among the most important artists of his generation. Suh’s ambitious sculptural installations and intimately scaled paintings and drawing re-imagine the homes where he has lived as structures that carry symbolic meaning. The artist will discuss the development of his artistic vision and the influences that have shaped his work.

The talk is organized in conjunction with the opening of Do Ho Suh, on view in the museum’s galleries. $10 MMoCA Nights admission. Free for members.

Drop-In Tour: Do Ho Suh Saturday, February 11 • 1–1:30 pm TOUR

Drop by MMoCA for lively and informal discussions of MMoCA’s newest exhibition, Do Ho Suh. Led by MMoCA’s docents, Drop-In Tours are free, 30-minute guided tours that provide you with the tools to consider artists’ creative decisions and construct meaningful interpretations of their work. Meet in the museum lobby.

Kids’ Art Adventures Sunday, February 12 • 1–2:30 pm KIDS

Find inspiration and explore expression through a diverse range of artworks by K-12 students in Young at Art. Embrace your creative potential with a project inspired by select works on view.

Kids’ Art Adventures invite families to make art together in MMoCA’s classroom following guided discussion of works on view in the museum’s exhibitions. This event is great for children ages six to ten, accompanied by an adult. Families should meet at 1 pm in MMoCA's lobby. Space is limited to thirty children and available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Under the Influence Thursday, February 23 • 6:30–9 pm EVENT

Art can influence and inspire. Explore your creativity and experience MMoCA after hours at Under the Influence. Begin the evening with a brief discussion of works in one of MMoCA’s current exhibitions. Then, move on to the museum’s Education Workshop to enjoy selected food and beverage pairings from Fresco as you create your very own masterpiece, influenced by the works you’ve just seen.

The Alien in Our Midst: Memory, Displacement and the Making of Milwaukee’s Everyday World

In response to themes explored in Do Ho Suh, Professor Arijit Sen will discuss engagement between the human body and its surroundings, as a way to understand the contemporary architecture of migrants. Embodied place-making helps us discover how the contemporary immigration and global movement of people has shaped the everyday world around us.

Arijit Sen is an architect and vernacular architecture historian who writes, teaches, and studies urban cultural landscapes. Currently an associate professor of architecture at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with an honorary appointment with the Department of Art History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dr. Sen cofounded the multi-campus Buildings-Landscapes-Cultures area of doctoral research on cultural landscapes.

Young at ArtReception Sunday, February 26 • 3–4:30 pm EVENT

Organized biennially, Young at Art presents works of art by Madison Metropolitan District students in kindergarten through grade 12. The exhibition is the result of a long-standing collaboration between MMoCA and the school district’s Arts Education Department. For the exhibition, each of Madison’s public school art teachers is invited to submit up to three works of art for the exhibition, including individual works as well as those made collaboratively. The resulting exhibition showcases a full range of subject matter, technique, and art mediums – from drawing, painting, and collage to photography, metals, ceramic, fiber, and new media arts. Young at Art calls attention to children’s creative potential and to the scope and variety of individual expression. The exhibition also highlights the high caliber of art instruction in Madison’s public schools and the interdisciplinary nature of art education. The exhibition reception on Sunday, February 26th will feature a performance by East High School’s Jazz Orchestra.

Gallery Talk: Jung-hye Shin Thursday, March 9 • 1–1:30 pm TALK

Home: Lost & Found (in Korea)

Professor Jung-hye Shin will discuss how buildings embody cultural assumptions and mold our ways of thinking as a result of our everyday movement thought the spaces we inhabit, and further explore how transnational movement of architectural practices and technology reshaped such relationships in the context of modern Korean history.

Jung-hye Shin is an associate professor in the Design Studies Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses primarily on creative positive place experiences in residential homes and in public buildings by examining practical and symbolic aspects of the built environment.

Drop by MMoCA for lively and informal discussions of Reconfigured Reality: Contemporary Photography from the Permanent Collection. Led by MMoCA’s docents, Drop-In Tours are free, 30-minute guided tours that provide you with the tools to consider artists’ creative decisions and construct meaningful interpretations of their work. Meet in the museum lobby.

Kids’ Art Adventures Sunday, March 12 • 1–2:30 pm KIDS

Explore the delicate and transparent full-scale house sculpture of Do Ho Suh, rendered in pink, blue, and yellow fabric. The artist builds dreamlike structures that represent the many places he has lived. Think about a place that is special to you, and construct your own building using fabric and wire.

Kids’ Art Adventures invite families to make art together in MMoCA’s classroom following guided discussion of works on view in the museum’s exhibitions. This event is great for children ages six to ten, accompanied by an adult. Families should meet at 1 pm in MMoCA's lobby. Space is limited to thirty children and available on a first-come, first-served basis.

MMoCA Nights Friday, March 17 • 6–9 pm EVENT

Poetry and Performance: A Response to Do Ho Suh

This MMoCA Nights gathering will continue to probe the Do Ho Suh exhibition. At 6:30 pm, art historian Michael Jay McClure will discuss the intersections of space and time in Do Ho Suh’s work. At 7:30 pm, enjoy poetry readings and live music from the Madison Symphony Orchestra Rhapsodic Quartet in the galleries, developed in response to the exhibition. The evening is free for MMoCA members and $10 for non-members.

Kids’ Art Adventures Sunday, April 2 • 1–2:30 pm KIDS

Look at a variety of animal imagery in Young at Art and create a sculptural creature inspired by the amazing animals that inhabit the earth.

Kids’ Art Adventures invite families to make art together in MMoCA’s classroom following guided discussion of works on view in the museum’s exhibitions. This event is great for children ages six to ten, accompanied by an adult. Families should meet at 1 pm in MMoCA's lobby. Space is limited to thirty children and available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Drop-In Tour: Do Ho Suh Saturday, April 8 • 1–1:30 pm TOUR

Drop by MMoCA for lively and informal discussions of Do Ho Suh. Led by MMoCA’s docents, these free, 30-minute guided tours provide you with the tools to consider artists’ creative decisions and construct meaningful interpretations of their work. Meet in the museum lobby.

Gallery Talk: Melanie Herzog Thursday, April 13 • 1–1:30 pm TALK

The Photographer is Present

The real, altered, and imagined spaces depicted in contemporary photography resonate with meanings that are variously social, historical, and sometimes deeply personal. The photographer may be visually present within the photograph, or the photographer’s presence may be implied as a spectator beyond the photograph’s frame. This gallery talk will explore ways in which contemporary photographers convey meaning in their photographs through the position they occupy – whether present within or absent from the photography – in relation to reconfigured realities they depict.

Melanie Herzog is a professor of art history at Edgewood College and a leading scholar on the work of Elizabeth Catlett. Herzog has also written extensively on the social documentary photographer, Milton Rogovin.

Artist Talk: Deborah Butterfield Saturday, April 22 • 7–8 pm TALK

Internationally renowned artist Deborah Butterfield will provide an artist talk on April 22, giving the second occurrence of the annual Stephen Fleischman Lectureship series. Butterfield is an important American sculptor who rose to prominence in the 1970s. For three decades, the single subject of Butterfield's art has been the horse. Over the years, she has created a deeply moving series of variations, in style and materials, on this motif. Initially realistic in style, her horses were created with plaster over a steel armature. By the mid-1970s she moved toward natural materials, particularly utilizing mud, clay, and sticks. In later work, Butterfield adopted junk metal and industrial materials such as barbed wire, pipes, and fencing. Most recently, since the late 1990s, she has cast her horses in bronze from models of wood and organic materials.

Butterfield’s talk is held in conjunction with the reinstallation of her locally-beloved sculptures, Dapple Gray 1980 and Untitled 1983, in the MMoCA lobby. The Stephen Fleischman Lectureship is held annually in April and features individuals who have made exceptional contributions to art and culture. Created in 2015 to mark Fleischman’s 25th anniversary as director of MMoCA, the lectures are free to all. For more information, visit mmoca.org.

Hair Affair: The Art of Hair Thursday, April 27 • 7–11 pm EVENT

MMoCA’s biennial event, Hair Affair: The Art of Hair, has become well known as the wildest runway show and outlandish fundraiser for the museum. This festive evening celebrates the intersection of art and hair design, showcasing extreme hair sculptures conceived and executed by local salons and stylists. Hair Affair will return the evening of Thursday, April 27, with designs based on “Myths and Monsters.” These amazing hair sculptures will impress attendees with height, width and creativity. During this one-night-only event, the hair sculptures will be presented on live models during a runway show. The event will also feature hors d’oeuvres from Fresco, cocktails, a live DJ, amusements, and a silent auction offering great packages. Both general admission and VIP options with exclusive seating will be available. Save the date now, invitations will be mailed in March.

For more information about participating in the event, please contact Annik Dupaty at annik@mmoca.org or 608.257.0158 x229.

Gallery Night Friday, May 5 • 5–9 pm EVENT

Showcasing the city's vibrant arts community, Gallery Night is a long-time Madison tradition. Organized each spring and fall by MMoCA, Gallery Night offers art lovers and art novices alike an opportunity to enjoy a wide variety of exhibitions, opening receptions, special events, demonstrations, and refreshments at venues throughout the city.

Kids’ Art Adventures Sunday, May 7 • 1–2:30 pm KIDS

See how Do Ho Suh uses colorful thread and watercolor to create original works on paper that address themes of home, memory, and self-identity. Learn how to creatively embroider with basic stiches in a project inspired by Do Ho Suh’s threaded artworks.

Kids’ Art Adventures invite families to make art together in MMoCA’s classroom following guided discussion of works on view in the museum’s exhibitions. This event is great for children ages six to ten, accompanied by an adult. Families should meet at 1 pm in MMoCA's lobby. Space is limited to thirty children and available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Drop-In Tour: Do Ho Suh Saturday, May 13 • 1–1:30 pm TOUR

Drop by MMoCA for lively and informal discussions of Do Ho Suh. Led by MMoCA’s docents, Drop-In Tours are free, 30-minute guided tours that provide you with the tools to consider artists’ creative decisions and construct meaningful interpretations of their work. Meet in the museum lobby.

Housed in a soaring, Cesar Pelli designed building on State Street, the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art provides free exhibitions and education programs that engage people in modern and contemporary art. The three galleries offer changing exhibitions that feature established and emerging artists. The Rooftop Sculpture Garden provides an urban oasis with an incredible view.

Programs like MMoCA Nights, Kids Art Adventures, and Rooftop Cinema, as well as its acclaimed exhibitions, have made MMoCA a favorite downtown destination. The award-winning Museum Store offers contemporary American craft and fine jewelry, while Fresco, the museum’s rooftop restaurant, features local, seasonal ingredients, and fine American cuisine